A Mild Drift and the Dangers Involved

There are a number of dive sites that can only be accessed with the excitement of a drift dive. These dives need to be planned out and everyone involved needs to know the plan and stick to it otherwise there could well be lives at risk. Unfortunately many of the divers and dive operators that participate in mild drift dives feel that this type of dive should not be taken as serious as it actually is and in a number of cases they relax the planning stage that really should be a requirement. Newspaper headlines regarding missing divers are in a number of occasions the result of a lack of planning. Most of these are because the diver had drifted from the spot they were expected to surface and did not have the appropriate scuba equipment to signal the boat.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that a mild drift is exactly as the label would suggest, it is an underwater current that is mainly caused by surface winds. They are particularly dangerous for divers due to the fact that they can quickly cause the diver to be a great distance from the boat and leave the diver in need of a signaling device.

The Red Sea has been the location for some of the most stunning dives I have done where more than once I have been involved in incidents with fast flowing surface currents and the mild drift below. Ensuring that my customers were safe by using a dive flag which made sure that we were all picked up safe. A few minutes in a drift heading away from a small RIB can be a worrying experience for even the most experienced divers.

A change in the weather conditions or a careless boat operator can be the cause of the problem. Having a device which is lightweight, easy to carry and highly visible in all conditions is one of the best ways that a diver can ensure that they make it back to the RIB safely and quickly. In a moment of an emergency a dive flag is one of the better ways of getting the attention you need when you need it.

In the past many experienced divers made their own emergency dive flags but they tended to be a rather awkward addition to the kit that was needed (most of us strapped them to our tanks) and they were not always the easiest things to deploy quickly. Fortunately this market niche has been filled by a collapsible dive flag that thought it can extend to over 1.5 meters in length will also fold down to such a small size that it will fit in a BC pocket. With a high visibility yellow flag it is a perfect and vital piece of kit that all divers should carry.